


fool for you

by eeery



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: College, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Modern AU, flower shop/café au, freshmen, i love these two so much, seniors, y'all i'm willing to die for them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-17
Updated: 2017-05-17
Packaged: 2018-11-01 23:27:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,009
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10932228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eeery/pseuds/eeery
Summary: ❝His eyes were blue like the sea, crystal-clear blue, shimmering and crashing and churning.A shade that made Damens heart beat a little bit faster.❞





	fool for you

His eyes were blue like the sea, crystal-clear blue shimmering and crashing and churning. A shade that made Damens heart beat a little bit faster. 

He was much shorter than he was, but Damen was in fact quite tall for his day so it wasn't a surpise. He had always been longer than the other guys. 

Damen always bumped into him on the stairwell or elevator or on campus but made no formal introduction beyond talking about the weather or how huge the campus was when he was lost going to his class. He wanted to ask for his name, but always missed his chance to do it. 

"I have to keep reminding myself: just a couple of months until graduation," Nikandros said in a tired voice, as he sat down at the lunch table. 

Damen greeted his best friend as usual, but then went back to reading her book. "I need to read this book for class and I have no idea what this chapter is about," he said. "Have you ever been reading and suddenly realized that you have no idea what you have just read?" He ran his hand through his hair as he sighed and leaned back in his chair. 

Nikandros grinned and took a bite of his apple. "You know, the other seniors are having this welcoming party for the freshman students tonight." 

Damen raised an eyebrow. "The seniors are always having a welcoming party." 

"So, you'll come? It's going to be fun. You're always studying so I thought it would be nice if you'd have a little break." 

He closed his book and let out a big heavy sigh. "The reason why I don't want to go to that party is because I know you're going to end up drunk again and I'm eventually forced to carry your drunk ass back home." 

Nikandros slapper his friend on his back. "I promise I won't be drunk this time. I heard that there are going to be a lot of cute girls too," he said with a big grin. "Isn't that reason enough?" 

"Fine," he said reluctantly. "I'll go with you. Maybe it's not as bad as I think." As he said that, Damen couldn't help wondering if that blond boy would show up. 

* * * 

By the evening the café was already crowded. Damen and Nikandros wove their way through the cluster of tables and people. The seniors and freshmen were determined to mark their territory, making sure they got the right table. 

The drums, saxophone and trumpet from the jazz band playing in the corner competed with the shrieking voices of the laughing, drinking crowd. A waiter hurried past him, balancing a tray with Martinis and Tequila shots. 

A couple of seniors Damen knew from class shoved a glass of beer into his hand. "Here, drink," they said and gulped down their own tequila. 

Nikandros was already doing the rounds, stopping by tables and buying drinks. He had the knack. Damen hovered near the bar. He was in no way as social as his friend, but he was well aware that a few personal greetings went a long way. So, after one quick shot of vodka, he forced himself into host mode and stopped by a few tables. 

Damen wasn't ugly and he'd been told he had a great smile and an athletic body. Nevertheless, Damen knew he was just an average guy. Women loved getting attention from him, while the men related to him because he could talk about sports, cars and girls. 

The waitress stopped in front of them and and slid two fresh glasses of beer across the table. Damen accepted it with a nod and lifted it to his lips to take a sip. 

Nikandros, reached over his shoulder to accept the glass of the waitress. She started to turn away, when he grabbed her hand. "Sweetheart, when are you going to realize I'm perfect for you?" 

She snorted and yanked her hand back. "Sorry, honey, you're not my type." 

Damen stifled a laugh. "Idiot, when are you ever going to give up?" 

And at that moment, a couple of tables away, he saw him. All of a sudden, Damen felt his heart thump against his chest. He looked even prettier than he had at their earlier, rushed meetings, Damen thought. 

His fair skin flushed pale rose from the alcohol and his golden hair glinting bright. It also reminded Damen that he didn't even probably know he existed.

He was surrounded with his group of friends and Damen saw he looked visibly happy, although he wasn't laughing along when his friends erupted into laughter. 

He didn't even notice that Nikandros stood up and walked to their table. Damen grabbed his arm so hard it surprised him. 

"What's wrong, Damen?" 

He felt himself flush uncomfortably. "Eh, do you know those freshmen?" 

Nikandros gave him a lopsided grin. "Well, no, but I know Laurent. He's a good friend of mine." 

"Laurent?" 

"Yeah," he said, looking to the blond, "that guy over there." 

Laurent. The name felt new and strange on his tongue, but somehow, in the saying of it, Damen felt a stirring, warm feeling. Nikandros approached their table and sat down next to Laurent. 

"Laurent, this is my friend Damen. Damen, this is Laurent. He's a guy I know since high school." 

Damen awkwardly stood next to Nikandros and looked at Laurent. "Eh, nice to meet you," he said with an awkward smile plastered on his face, offering a hand. 

Laurent gave him a tight little smile. "Yes, it's nice to meet you too," he said, squeezing Damens hand before letting go. "We have met before, right?" 

"Yeah, I see you walking around campus sometimes." 

A silence fell between them until it was eventually broken by Nikandros watching them both. "What's with you two? Damen you're always so easygoing around people you haven't met before, what's the matter?" 

It was true. Damen usually didn't have a hard time fitting in with new people and always tried his best to come up with a good conversation. But this time, meeting Laurent, it was as if his mouth was too dry to speak. 

An odd feeling pressed his body. He felt like he needed to say something. The conversation wasn't flowing well and he would feel strange just walking away from Laurent. 

"So, eh, yeah, n-nice to meet you," Damen repeated again, stuttering, like some gauche sixteen-year-old boy experiencing his first crush. He felt himself turn red again. He had this indescribable feeling in his chest. It was a feeling different from any feeling he had ever had. 

Laurents eyes turned from Damen to Nikandros, who was sitting at his side, laughing and talking with the other freshman students. "Excuse me, it's getting really stuffy in here. I need some fresh air. But we can talk outside if you want?" His steady blue eyes looked back at Damen, revealing nothing of his thoughts.

Damen nodded and picked up his jacket. They walked outside while the hum of conversations, punctuaded by the odd burst of laughter, slowly began drifting away. He felt it then. Rain. It came down harder, dripping through the dense clouds of smoke.

The rain almost fell horizontally and the rain felt good against his hot skin. For a moment, Damen thought that the drops were black, but it must have been the way they looked in the streetlights against the darkness of the night. 

He stripped of his jacket and pulled it closer around them, trying to block out the rain. They stood so close he could feel Laurents body warmth and the movement of his chest rising. 

"Sorry, I really wanted to go outside. I can't handle alcohol very well." 

Damen looked at him and saw the cold droplets of rain beaded against his skin and rolled across his flushed cheeks. It was still falling off his hair and running down his sweater. 

"No, it's okay. I wanted to get some fresh air anyway." Damen averted his gaze from him. 

"How did you and Nikandros meet?" Laurent asked, switching the subject. 

"We both loved swimming and attended the same swimming club when we were sixteen. That's where I met him. I never thought that we'd end up attending the same college." 

"Oh, now that you mention it, you do have the body shape of a swimmer," he said in a normal tone of voice, while looking at Damens bare arms. 

Damen flushed again now and tried to ignore his heart, that kept on racing fast. 

Laurent hesitated. "I've always wanted to learn how to swim. I can't swim. Never learned how." His voice sounded soft. 

"Well, maybe I could teach you how to swim. I'm not a very good teacher, but if it's you, then I think I could be capable of teaching it to you." Damens voice sounded hesitant and stilted, but his words were sincere. 

A look of surprise flickered over Laurents features and Damen was caught off guard by the blue of his eyes and the life that sparked there. No hatred or despair, only calm light blue eyes like a clear sky.

Laurent's face flushed, but he maintained his composure. He laughed softly, making Damen smile. "Yes, I would like that."

Suddenly Laurents arms went around Damen and he tilted his head forward in sudden weariness. His forehead came to rest on the strong curve of Damens shoulder. He could smell Laurents scent — jasmine and some other exotic flower — through the familiar, earthy smell of rain. 

"I think I drank too much, after all. Please don't move." 

Damen's body tense, his breathing quick and shallow. But he was keeping himself still, his arms loosely around Laurents waist, his breath lightly ruffling the loose hair at his temple. Laurents sweater was drenched and clung to his body, his hair soaked against his forehead and cheeks. 

Laurent said something so softly, that Damen didn't hear it at all. "What?" 

"I said," he repeated drowsy and sleepy from the alcohol, "that you're a nice guy, Damen." 

He had his eyes closed and Damen noticed his long and thick eyelashes, so blond that they almost looked invisible. 

"Oh really? What... um... made you think that?" 

"I don't know, I feel save and comfortable when I'm with you like this. It's like nothing in the world can hurt me." 

"Is this how you always impress people?" Damen asked with a small grin. 

A silence fell, and the only thing Damen could here was the pounding of his heart, the wind and the soft continuous falling of the raindrops on the ground. 

"No, this is how I impress y — " Laurent stopped abruptly and turned to Damen, his expression clearly startled and embarrassed. He didn't seem drunk anymore, only a bit dazed. 

Damen felt his stomach in knots. He felt like he was sitting at the top of a rollercoaster hill looking down towards the bottom. He couldn't believe his ears. Or his eyes. Maybe I didn't hear it right, Damen thought. 

"Could you repeat that, Laurent? Please?" Damen asked, his voice husky as he tried to ignore the rapid beating of his heart. 

"It's already late. I think I'll go home," he mumbled. "It was nice meeting you, Damen." Laurent looked at the ground in an attempt to hide his face. Damen wondered if he was blushing again. 

Damen's face fell and he merely nodded, keeping his gaze on him. He felt somehow disappointed in Laurents answer. Damen took a deep breath and frowned at his back. What was there about this guy? He was just... a guy. And Damen — too — was a guy. 

*    *    * 

Damen strolled around town during a sunny morning, shielding his eyes behind a pair of sunglasses. The day before, he'd asked Nikandros for advice. He wanted to know how to properly ask someone out and when he'd said that, his best friend had laughed at him. 

Don't act like this is the first time you're asking a girl out, just do it like you always do, is what Nikandros said. 

But for Damen it felt different this time. Like it was the first time he was going to ask someone out, although he had had quite some girlfriends when he was in high school. And yet in another way it was so simple. He found Laurent interesting, but he wanted to take his time to get to know him better. If he ever got the chance, that is. 

Then Damen decided to made his way to the flower shop across the street. The smell of flowers hit him full force, and Damen took a step backwards, sneezing. There were flowers of every color, shape and size imaginable all around. The greenery in the  shop was vibrant and the air smelled woodsy with the aroma of land. 

The plants and flowers crowded each other on the large window sills and spilled over onto the floor. There was no one behind the counter, so Damen rang the bell and waited. He stood there a good five minutes and when still no one came, he then tapped the bell a second time. 

"I'm coming, I'm coming," he heard a distant voice say. 

A blond guy with blue eyes poked his head out from behind a curtain. Damens breath hitched in his chest when he recognized Laurent. His fair skin was a little flushed from the heat. He was dressed in a loose, sleeveless shirt with stripes and jeans. He held a watering pot in his hands and put it on the counter. 

"Oh, Damen, hey." He sounded surprised. "How can I help you?" 

"Hey," Damen said, just as surprised. "Do you own this shop?" 

Laurent shook his head. "No, it's my mother's. I just help whenever possible, you know. She had always loved flowers," he answered, looking around the flower shop. "Yeah, she definitely takes pride in what she does." 

Damen never knew his mother because she had died from an illnes when he was still a little kid. He had only a hazy memory of his mother's face: large dark eyes, like his own, framed by long dark hair, peering down at him. He wasn't sure if he was recalling a dream or a false memory based on scraps of information he had heard. He shook is head at the memory. 

"So, who's the lucky person?" 

Startled out of his thoughts, Damen look at Laurent and gave him a little smile, which he returned. It's for you, idiot. "It's for someone I like," he answered.

For a moment, Laurent stood silent, but then resolutely went forward. "Well, since it's for someone you like, I have the perfect bouquet for you." 

Laurent handed a lavish bouquet of flowers with peonies, white delphiniums and pink roses. "I hope you'll like it. It took a lot of time to arrange it properly, but I guess it's my personal favorite."

"That's amazing," Damen said, taking it. He looked in awe at the beautiful bouquet and couldn't help but grin. 

"Thank you, I hope the one who'll receive it, will like it as much as you do." 

Damen looked up at him, smiled and said, "I'm pretty sure that person is going to love it." 

 

Damen hadn't slept all night and couldn't even eat his breakfast because he was exceptionally nervous. He never even knew himself to be nervous and he wasn't even sure why he was nervous for Laurent. 

He got up and washed his face in the bathroom. He looked in the mirror above the porcelain basin. Damen looked at the tanned face in the mirror. He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, which already looked messy. 

Walking back to his room, he pulled on some jeans and a white shirt. He took the bouquet out of the glass vase, glanced at his reflection one last time, and headed for the door. 

The sky was still a cloudless blue, the sun still shining brightly, when Damen felt his heart beat like a drum — fast, hard and loud. With every step, he felt the increase in his heartbeat. 

He glanced at the front door of the flower shop, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then slowly let it out. Well, maybe I'm already screwed, Damen thought to himself. His pulse quickened as he hid the bouquet of flowers, Laurents personal favorite, behind his back. 

When Damen walked through the door, the strong fragrance of flowers filled his nostrils. He tried not to sneeze again, when he saw Laurent behind the counter again. His blue eyes were more arresting than Damen had ever seen them, truthful and serene. 

Laurent looked at him in surprise and Damen could see him smile, the smile he no longer could be immune to. "It's nice to see you again, Damen." 

Damen looked away, trying to hide his blush. "Laurent, I — " 

"Yes?" 

He probably had looked very clumsy, but he handed Laurent the bouquet of flowers. "For you, Laurent," he managed to say. 

Damen's gaze lifted at Laurent and was quick to notice that he was blushing. Hard. And it was probably the cutest thing Damen had ever seen. Laurent accepted the flowers and carefully placed the bouquet on the counter. At last he looked up at him. 

"Damen, I-I don't know what — " 

"I want to get to know you more, Laurent. So... would you like to go out sometime?" It was like Damen's last words didn't make any sense.

Laurent let a warm trickle of laughter spill out of his mouth, his cheeks still rosy. "You know, I really wondered who that person was going to be, the one receiving flowers from you. And at the end, I felt a slight disappointment," he said. 

"Only a slight, huh?" Damen said, grinning. Seeing Laurent like this felt like such a thrill that he forgot everything negative, simply enjoying his company. He couldn't hide his happiness either. 

Fighting back the blush that crept up his neck again, Laurent said, "Yes, Damen. I would like that very much."

**Author's Note:**

> Hello beautiful ppl. God, gotta love these two dorks. I wanted to write a CaPri modern au for so long, but again, laziness struck me. Nik is a bit more cheeky than we're used to, but I like it hehehe. Thanks for reading this, means a lot.


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